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title: HIFIS Mission
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excerpt:
  Overview of HIFIS Motivation, Structure and Governance.
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    <h1 id="motivation" class="alert-heading">Motivation for HIFIS</h1>
    <p>
        The top position of Helmholtz research is increasingly based on cross-centre and international cooperation and
        common access to data treasure and -services. At the same
        time the significance of a sustainable software development for the research process is recognised.</p>
    <p>
        HIFIS aims to ensure an excellent information environment for outstanding research in all Helmholtz research
        fields and a seamless and performant IT-infrastructure connecting knowledge from all centres. It will build a
        secure and easy-to-use collaborative environment with efficiently accessible ICT services from anywhere. HIFIS
        will also support the development of research software with a high level of quality, visibility and
        sustainability.</p>
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        <h1 id="documentation-and-publications">Documentation and Publications</h1>
        <h3 id="hifis-proposal">HIFIS Proposal</h3>
        <p>The original platform proposal for HIFIS
            <a href="https://www.helmholtz.de/fileadmin/user_upload/01_forschung/Helmholtz_Inkubator_HIFIS.pdf">can be
                found here</a>.</p>

        <h3 id="documentation">Documentation</h3>
        <p>The technical documentation for HIFIS architectural components
            <a href="https://hifis.pages.hzdr.de/hifis-technical-documentation/">is located here (restricted
                access)</a>.</p>

        <h3 id="reports-and-conference-contributions">Reports and Conference Contributions</h3>
        <ul>
            <li>Annual report</li>
            <li>Abstracts</li>
            <li>SAB Report</li>
        </ul>
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        <h1 id="partners">Partners</h1>
        <p>
            HIFIS is embedded in the context of the <a href="{% link mission/incubator.md %}">Helmholtz Information
                &amp; Data Science
                Incubator</a> and hence has close collaboration with the four other incubator platforms.
        </p>
        <p>
            For a more extensive list of Helmholtz and international partners, see also our
            <a href="{% link partners.md %}">partners</a>
            page.
        </p>
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        <h1 id="Structure">HIFIS Structure</h1>
        <h3 id="participating-centers">Participating centers</h3>
        <p>The following 11 out of 19 Helmholtz centres are members of the HIFIS platform:
            <a href="https://www.awi.de/">AWI</a>,
            <a href="https://www.desy.de/">DESY</a>,
            <a href="https://www.dlr.de/">DLR</a>,
            <a href="https://www.dkfz.de/">DKFZ</a>,
            <a href="https://www.fz-juelich.de/">FZJ</a>,
            <a href="https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/">GFZ</a>,
            <a href="https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/">HMGU</a>,
            <a href="https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/">HZB</a>,
            <a href="https://www.hzdr.de/">HZDR</a>,
            <a href="https://www.kit.edu/">KIT</a>,
            <a href="https://www.ufz.de/">UFZ</a>.</p>
        <h3 id="internal-structure">Internal structure</h3>
        <p>To achieve its goals, HIFIS works in three Competence Clusters which are distributed throughout different
            Helmholtz research centers:</p>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="{% link mission/cluster-cloud.md %}">Cloud Services</a>: Federated platform for proven first
                class cloud services;
                led by <a href="https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/">HZB</a>.</li>
            <li><a href="{% link mission/cluster-backbone.md %}">Backbone Services</a>: High-performance trusted
                network infrastructure with
                unified basic services; led by <a href="https://www.desy.de/">DESY</a>.</li>
            <li><a href="{% link mission/cluster-software.md %}">Software Services</a>: Platform, training and support
                for high-quality,
                sustainable software development, led by <a href="https://www.hzdr.de/">HZDR</a>.</li>
        </ul>
        <p>Within the scope of the declared goals and achievements of the Helmholtz Association for HIFIS, the
            respective centres steer the competence clusters.
            All competence clusters are connected through the HIFIS ICT Office.</p>
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        <h1 id="governance-and-supervision">Governance and Supervision</h1>
        <p>To ensure that HIFIS’s progress and strategy is consistent with the common principles of the Helmholtz
            Association,
            Reporting, Governance and an external Scientific Advisory Board are central.</p>

        <h3 id="ict-office">ICT Office</h3>
        <p>The ICT Office guarantees the technical and organisational coordination as well as the controlling and
            reporting for HIFIS.
            It also defines the interface to comparable external committees, as already existent in e.g. FhG or MPG.
            It coordinates the HIFIS platform and is headed by its speaker Volker Gülzow (DESY) and the coordinators of
            the competence clusters Ants Finke (HZB) and Uwe Konrad (HZDR), supported by Uwe Jandt (DESY).</p>

        <h3 id="ict-federation-board">ICT Federation Board</h3>
        <p>The Assembly of Members of the Helmholtz Association has installed the ICT Federation Board (Steering Board).
            It is responsible for central decisions in HIFIS.
            According to the specifications of the directors of the Helmholtz Association the Helmholtz ICT Federation
            Board establishes the annual plan for HIFIS and reports about the implemented achievements to the Helmholtz
            Incubator, with the Helmholtz Incubator reporting to the general assembly.
            <a href="{% link mission/members-fedboard.md %}">See here for a full list of members.</a></p>

        <h3 id="scientific-advisory-board-sab">Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)</h3>
        <p>Further, the Assembly of Members of the Helmholtz Association has installed the Scientific Advisory Board
            (SAB). A total of 20 renowned international scientists contribute to HIFIS’s progress by their advice as SAB
            members.
            <a href="{% link mission/members-sab.md %}">See here for a full list of SAB members.</a></p>
    </div>
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<div class="image-attrib">Images by Katerina Limpitsouni via <a href="https://undraw.co/">undraw.co</a></div>